Long time no chat y’all ;)

[J242]

Hey everybody, it’s been a few months.
I was asked to pop in and maybe share some info about housing, the job market, etc down here in Austin after I had gotten a bit more acclimated with the area. It’s… Different.

Culture/daily life: Reminds me very much of Seattle in the 90’s with a lot of tech booming w/ startups all over the place as well as internationally known companies dropping billions for more real estate and a very “young” vibe to this old city. There’s live music EVERYWHERE downtown. EVERY night. “Almost” every bar/club/venue. This city “feels” like it’s 1/10th the size of Seattle but geographically? It’s easily 4x larger. There’s a ton of sprawl but somehow each pocket and area has it’s own personality if you look into them a little more than just driving through. Fascinating city I’m still learning a lot about and really having a blast doing so.

The heat: It’s absurd. Today hit 96 (we’re cooling down I guess? lol) but down here AC is a fundamental right, not a great “feature” or upgrade. I was looking at new properties today and I could get the SEER rating, age of their AC/HVAC systems, insulation numbers, inspection records, and more on the spot at every location. Very helpful for prospective buyers. It’s odd that there are either wood-burning or gas fireplaces in every house I’ve toured. Folks down here think 55 is “extreme cold” apparently! They probably laugh at me the same way if I’m sweating and it’s only 85 out. lol Totally fair. ;)

Traffic: This one really cracks me up. I hear folks here complain about traffic non-stop. They think when it takes 1/2 an hour to go 15 miles it’s absurd. lol Similar to many other cities I spend time in down here, they have these side streets that run parallel to the main highways and in stop-go traffic, you can breeze by at 35mph. The less people realize that the better IMO, means faster drive times for me. lol

Transit: They “have” public transit but it’s a shadow of Seattle’s. They have a Light-rail-esque train that runs from The Domain (North Austin) downtown but it’s slow and often has merging sets of tracks so the train will have to pull over for 5+ minutes while you wait for the oncoming train to pass. Pretty silly not to just lay down more rail but I’m no authority on the matter.

Food: This city if BBQ heaven! Amazing Mexican, Honduran, Vietnamese, Thai, “American” cuisine and so much more. Definitely a foodie city but I look down in disgust at the “salmon” grocery store carry here. It’s that Atlantic cat-food. The nearby Costco did get a run of the Copper River Reds and I was blown away at how cheap it was compared to Seattle! People don’t know their PNW seafood and I hope to help correct that amongst our growing group of local friends. lol

Child resources: I don’t know if this point is so much of a positive comment about Austin, a negative one about Seattle, or something in-between but it is a night and day difference. Currently we live walking distance from a fantastic full-time, open 7am-7pm, M-F children’s daycare/preschool/pre-K center that we and our daughter absolutely love for roughly $200/week. Our wait list time? 2 weeks to get in. # of schools available & options? Again, night & day difference. Property taxes have a %1 addition solely for funding schools and with each new “planned community” or “mixed use neighborhood” that pops up there seems to always be at the very least, an elementary and jr high built at the same time to serve the area. The school districts “seem” to be pretty well funded and provide solid educational support. Many parents I’ve met have mentioned they moved to Austin because of the schools. My daughter is still in daycare/pre-K so I have no idea how accurate that might be but so far, it “seems” to be fairly legit. Also, babysitters! There are a PLETHORA of them for actually reasonable rates! Our favorite is certified in infant and child CPR, basic medical, is going to medical school, and volunteers at education centers. $12.50/hour!!! Our backups have similar certs and ambitions and range between $11-15/hour. In Seattle we could never find an easily accessible, affordable babysitter that we could hire other than for very special occasions. Down here we go out at least once a month now, often twice and “occasionally” three times. lol This is definitely a far more “kiddo friendly” city for both parents and kids. At least, that is how is feels/seems.

Any questions about other differences? There’s good and bad differences and I absolutely miss Seattle. I can’t wait to come back and visit again (hopefully sooner than later). I certainly have yet to find anything down here that can compare to Sunday brunch at Salty’s, Ma’Ono’s fried chicken sandwich, Easy Street, Husky Deli, or any number of beloved Seattle institutions but like I said up front. It’s… Different. In some ways good, in others bad, but more often just “meh”.

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[miws]

Oh, and the viaduct is mostly gone. I think the only part left is a chunk of the ramps at 1st & Dearborn, which they will have down within the next week-and-a-half or so,

They started on the last chunk of the viaduct proper, at Marion St. which also included the pedestrian overpass between Colman Dock and 1st Av, and I believe that is totally gone now.

Mike

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[miws]

(If my “viaduct” post’s wording seems out of context, it’s because I posted another comment just before. *Hopefully*, it’s just hung up in a mode filter).

Mike

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[CarDriver]

Speaking of cars..what’s the price of gas? what are your insurance/tabs cost? What is the bike situation? Do they have bike lanes like Seattle?

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[miws]

Thanks for the update, J242!

How are the thunderstorms down there? ;-)

(We had a *major* one Saturday evening, the longest lasting and loudest than just about anyone can remember!)

This has been a much cooler Summer for us overall, than the past two, and fewer wildfires as well, so the air quality has been *much* better. I believe I only heard of one or two alerts that might mildly, perhaps to moderately, affect those of us with lung disease, unlike the past two Summers where there were several days that they were recommending that folks with *healthy* lungs avoid going outside, if they could, because the air quality was at dangerous levels.

Mike

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[miws]

HA! My original post finally showed up! :-)

Mike

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[J242]

@ miws: “Oh, and the viaduct is mostly gone.” Yeah, I’ve been keeping up on that as I have several friends who work downtown and keep posting photos on the “progress”. It is what it is I guess? I was able to take the tunnel N&S a couple of times before the big move and I was not impressed but to each their own? Maybe I’m just an old fogie but I miss the good ole’ days of a proper 4 lane Viaduct in both directions at 50 mph. Properly re-enforcing it via new structural “arch” supports would have been 1/10th the price and twice the lanes. I’m just ranting now, don’t mind me. lol

@miws: “How are the thunderstorms down there? ;-)”

WOW! The first two months we were down here there were lightning storms every couple days with torrential downpours for around 2-3 hours. Lately? Nothing but cicadas and bats chirping. ;) I saw what the storm y’all just went through. WOW! Not going to see another one like that for quite a while! (We hope right?) Very cool and very impressive. The storms down here are on par w/ Tampa Bay (Lightning Alley) in that they are very frequent (heat lightning as well as storm lightning, and probably 4 or 5 other kinds I have never heard of) but when they hit, it’s constant flashes and occasionally clear bolts and it only lasts for “maybe” an hour tops and then a wonderful cool breeze descends and it becomes a perfect evening.

@cardriver: “Speaking of cars..what’s the price of gas?”

Lowest I’ve seen within a couple miles is $2.09, highest is $2.49, average is $2.19 or $2.29 depending on what side of the highway you’re talking about lol. I thought price fluctuations in Seattle were crazy when I first moved down (from Alaska) but wow does this have that beat. Still, FAR lower prices than Seattle but it’s because of a different taxation structure. Not necessarily better or worse, just “different”. I can definitely say their “express” lanes are a joke. Only 1 lane so all it takes is 1 driver going slow to screw over miles of others. Also, there is no “carpooling”, let alone dedicated lanes for it here. Plenty of bicycle lanes! Swing and a miss. lol

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